‘The fact is that the cell-membrane in the human cell, actually is an information processor, and what I ultimately realised in 1985, was that this processor had a very interesting and important definition. The definition of the membrane is that it is a liquid-crystal semi-conductor with gates and channels. When I recognised this bio-chemical description in 1985, I was very much amused by it, because I had heard this exact same definition somewhere else… I read it in a book called ‘Understanding Your Microprocessor’… Basically, the definition – liquid-crystal semi-conductor with gates and channels, is exactly the same definition of a computer chip. What this all led to is a very simple and yet very profound understanding. The cell is an information processor because the membrane reads the environment and adjusts the biology. The nucleus of the cell (with its genes) represents a hard-disc and the genes are programmes. Our old belief system is that the nucleus and its programmes were ‘read only’ memory, so that whatever the genes are – that would be our fate. However, the new insights offered, revealed that the nucleus of the cell was not ‘read only’ but was actually ‘read write’, so basically the cell was a programmable device… The important reality is that our state of health (or disease) is the product of the environment we live in, and the environment we perceive.’

Bruce Lipton’s theory that the cell membrane is the power house of the cell – rather than the cell nucleus – is incorrect. It is incorrect because this thinking is inverted and non-scientific. Why is this? Bruce Lipton states that his idea for re-thinking the cell was inspired by computer programming, but the error he is making is that although computers are conceived and manufactured by human-beings, cells are not. Cells are simply passed-on by human-beings and not generated as an act of will. Cells are biological, material objects that have evolved in the physical world over very long periods of time. Cells – which are a product of a specific configuration of atoms and molecules – pre-exist the mind, which emerges from a fully functioning brain. No amount of focused will-power will make a cell magically manifest out of thin air. A cell contains genetic coding which is switched on or off according to physical conditions – this is all that happens. The cell ‘senses’ the environment but has no ability to cognise what it is sensing, as the sensory mechanism is designed to respond rather than react. In-short, the cell is ‘read only’, rather than ‘read – write’ as Lipton contains. Why does this matter? It matters because Lipton is expressing a highly individualistic (and bourgeois) vision of reality, whereby he suggests that everything experienced is the product of will-power and focus. Lipton is of the opinion that the human body and mind can be changed by focusing the mind and attuning to the cell membranes. If this re-aligning procedure is carried-out correctly, Lipton contends, an individual’s life circumstances will improve for the better. People suffer, according to Lipton’s model, because they do not understand how their cells really work. Only a White, middle class male with a good income and secure job good concoct such a pseudo-science. If a person is starving due to a lack of food, the body will slowly shut-down and eventually die. This process will happen regardless of whether the mind is focused and trying to spontaneously manifest ‘food’. It is inequalities within capitalist society that will kill this person and not a lack of understanding of Bruce Lipton’s theory. If a person is dying of cold, the body will shut-down irrespective of how ‘positive’ a mind state might be. If a person is dying from lack of moisture, the body will shut-down regardless of how the mind perceives the world. If a body is dying from injury or disease, no amount of visualising a cell membrane will change the eventual out-come. If a person is subject to a life of deprivation and abuse, no amount of ‘wishing’ a change will create the change that is required. Capitalist society is a product of political and cultural pressures that are unjust and unequal. This is a matter of collective human organisation and class distinction that has nothing to do with the individual cells of the body. A starving person has to be fed, a thirsting person needs water, a cold person needs warmth, and an injured or ill person requires appropriate medical treatment. Resources in life are not magically brought into being by an individualistic act of will, but pre-exist individual existence and are ruthlessly controlled by special interest groups. Lipton’s model is wrong as it seeks to replace Darwinian evolution through natural selection. For Lipton, evolution becomes a matter of personal choice, as if he is shopping in an exclusive shop for a product he desperately desires! There is absolutely no biological evidence for this view.